Top 10: 2005 -- 10 Most Important Developments in HIV Medicine

Tipranavir, a protease inhibitor (PI), was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) issued the report AIDS in Africa: Three Scenarios to 2025, which included three case studies outlining possible outcomes of the AIDS epidemic in Africa over the next 20 years, based on different policy decisions made by the United Nations (UN) and by individual African governments.

The FDA issued its first tentative approval of a generic antiretroviral drug regimen (lamivudine [3TC]/zidovudine [ZDV] and nevirapine [NVP]) manufactured by a non-US company, Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa. Since the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) rules would not allow funding for any antiretroviral drugs that did not have FDA approval, all PEPFAR-funded programs had been required to purchase more costly brand-name drugs.

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The US Institute of Medicine (IOM) published the results of its extensive data review on the use of NVP for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. The review confirmed that NVP was safe and effective for use in PMTCT, despite widespread reporting questioning the use of NVP in pregnant women.

Brazil rejected US$40 million from PEPFAR because the United States required a declaration condemning prostitution.

The US patent expired for the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) ZDV. Four generic versions of ZDV were approved for sale within the United States.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released international treatment figures showing that the "3 by 5" initiative would most likely not achieve its goal of placing three million HIV-positive people in the developing world on antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2005. When the report was released in June 2005, the initiative had succeeded in placing 970,000 people on antiretroviral therapy, 1.6 million short of target.

Chinese officials announced that as many as 10 million Chinese may be infected with HIV by 2010, if effective prevention efforts are not immediately instituted. With appropriate funding and effective programs, Dai Zhicheng, Director of the Chinese Health Ministry's Committee of AIDS Experts, suggested that the number of HIV cases in that time period could be kept to below 1.5 million.

The AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2005, published by UNAIDS and the WHO, reported that the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide has reached its highest point yet: 40.3 million, up from 39.4 million in 2004. Nearly 5 million new cases of HIV and 3.1 million deaths due to HIV/AIDS occurred in 2005. Of the HIV-related deaths, 500,000 occurred in children, and 2.4 million occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nelson Mandela announced that his eldest son, Makgatho, had died of AIDS at the age of 54.

References

New report presents three scenarios for AIDS in Africa by 2025. Scenarios look at how AIDS could shape Africa's future [press release]. Geneva, Switzerland: Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS, March 4, 2005.

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